Whistleblower portals. Protests outside of offices. Phones that won’t stop ringing and inboxes that are never back at zero. Going into “survival mode” just to get through the working day (Hawkins 2025). These glimpses into the daily lives of those working for left-leaning elected officials in conservative contexts mean weeding through fatigue, frustration and quite often, feelings of failure. How and why constituents choose to engage with the local offices of their representatives or state agency offices offer significant insight into public opinion in ways that polls can’t capture, allowing for a unique space of political inquiry – and perhaps, disruption. Furthermore, exploring how Democratic political figures and their staff respond to the urgent needs of their constituents – most often working in direct contravention of Republican legislative behaviours and mandates – can also help form a picture of what constitutes ‘resistance’ in contemporary US politics. Utilising ethnographic data gathered in two key governmental offices in North Carolina and Congressional politics, this paper asks: what does resistance look like within formal political institutions, and can it have any real transformational power?
With special attention to the intersectional experiences of Black and Latina women elected officials, agency directors and their staff members, this paper joins a rich conversation about the enactment of resistance across the spectrum of political communities (Chisholm 1970, Jones et al 2014, Abrams 2018, Schalk 2022), exploring both its wins and limitations within elite institutions. I assert that such practices as offering an enhanced set of constituent services, leading on community work traditionally carried out by grassroots and mutual aid organizations, and working without pay through the longest government shutdown in the country’s history, all constitute important avenues for resistance within United States formal political bodies.
